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The IBO has just confirmed what we have long known – charter school students stay in charter schools at higher rates than students in nearby traditional public schools (TPS). Even more counter to charter detractors’ claims– fewer charter school special needs students leave their schools than nearby special needs district students.

When the New York City Department of Education (NYC DOE) released its “struggling schools” list last week, it included six charter schools alongside over 40 district schools. Clearly, NYC DOE wants to signal that accountability is for all schools, including charters. (I can’t help but think how far we’ve come from the time when actual closure was likely only for charters.)

Today, the NYC Department of Education released its 2010-11 progress reports for high schools. (See our breakdown of the K-8 progress reports.) The reports assign a letter grade to each school, based on student test scores, student progress, attendance, and “learning environment” survey results are all heavily weighted to account for differing student characteristics.

Today, the NYC Department of Education (DOE) released its 2010-11 Progress Reports for public schools serving grades K-8, including charter schools. Overall, charter schools’ grades are improved from the previous year. More than a third of all charter schools, and half of charter middle schools, received an A grade.

The Charter Center is committed to a sector built upon accountability and results for kids. Accordingly, we have conducted an analysis of New York City charter school state test scores that will allow the public to better understand the performance of individual schools and the sector overall.

Saturday’s NY Post reported the answer to a critical question: since over 90% of NYC charter school students are Black or Hispanic, what do this year’s generally sobering test scores say about their performance compared to Black and Hispanic students in district schools?